NAIROBI, Kenya – Monitors of South Sudan's troubled peace agreement say government troops burned thousands of civilians' homes late last year amid the country's three-year civil war.
Friday's report levels some of the strongest allegations yet against security forces in the conflict.
The report says three villages in the southern Yei region visited by investigators had been abandoned and destroyed. A visit to Yei in November led the U.N. special adviser on genocide to warn that South Sudan could slip into genocide.
The new report says government forces denied U.N. officials and investigators access to one Yei village, and government officials blamed rebels for the homes' destruction. Investigators found that unlikely.
Satellite data from Amnesty International shows about 2,000 structures were destroyed along a highway near Yei between late December and January.